165 posts categorized "Student"

07/07/2014

We stayed at the hotel 2 days and one night. They learnt everything they need to know in Alcalá, and of course Instituto Benjamin Franklin stays. So, they were a little bit tired but they resisted with courage the big amount of documents they had to sign for IBF and CIEE (release form for media recording, ciee data protection students form, ciee Alcalá rules, language commitment, IBF disciplinary policy, IBF-UAH housing regulations and home stay contrac, IBF form for media recording).

We ate a lot and we had fun as well. At the end of the second day, they went with their Spanish families.

But two days later, I had to change one student to other family, because of internet connection. I had several conversations with the student about her situation. While she said that her host family was lovely and kind, the circumstances of the home were affecting her in a negative way. The first family had change their internet company connection ten days before the arrival of our student, but they had a lot of problems. It was very difficult to be in the home without internet connectivity. While the family was generous in offering to take her to places where she could access the internet, it was very inconvenient for her. Now, Hannah is happy and I am happy too.

On Wednesday the students started their courses at IBF and in the afternoon we had an Alcalá walking tour.

On Friday we went to Madrid in order to learn how to use the transportation passes and the transportation system. It was a nice day. We walked more than the students usually walk in USA, but they did not complain at all. They were very understanding.

On Saturday 5th most of our students attended to 2014 Madrid Gay Parade and on Sunday 6th went to Segovia.

By the way, our two sessions students are travelling a lot and they enjoy their stay here!!!!!

06/03/2014

On May 29th our summer 2014 session 1 group arrived to Madrid Barajas airport without any kind of problems, except one student who did not take her flight on time and she arrived one day after all the students.

The group consists of 35 students: 11 from University of Iowa, 7 from University of Wisconsin Madison, 7 from University of Indiana, 2 from Texas Christian University, 2 from Denison University, 1 from Oklahoma City University, 2 from University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 1 from Bryn Mawr College, 1 from Fordham University, and 1 from Virginia Commonwealth.

The Orientation was very different that other summer times. It was the first time in my CIEE “life” than I was with two assistants from Madrid in two diferent days: Sonia Sales was with us the first and a half day, and Patricia Witzig, a half day.

None of the students seemed to be stressed or scared of the unknown. I know their advisors and directors from USA prepared carefully a pre-orientation.

All of the students in the orientation sessions at the Hotel CAMPANILE proved to be strong and resisted the “jet lag” very well, listening to all of the sessions regarding safety in Alcalá, safety for women, health insurance, pre-registration, trips, families, etc.

We didn’t get any phone calls from a parent asking about their sons or daughters, just one e-mail, because this group immediately got in contact with their relatives to tell them they were in the hotel or waiting in a flight connection thanks to their i-phones/android phones.

We went to Madrid on Sunday June 1st, a long walk that consisted of several kilometers as usual, but it was less than we used to walk, because it is difficult with a big group. I asked for help to Mercedes Conde, the Anthropology student who helped me on spring 2014.

We had a lunch together on an "All you can eat" restaurant.

Afterwards, we offered them three options, one of them was going to Alcalá with Patricia, and to show again that they had learned how to get around on the public transportation (one student wanted this option), the second one it was the walking tour second part with Mercedes and me (zero students), and the third option was free time and they could return to Alcalá by themselves.

On Monday June 2ndstarted with one day “shopping”. Only one course had to be cancelled because they had less than 5 students, but others had to be doubled because more than 20 students wanted to take them. In the afternoon, we had an UAH and Alcalá down town walking tour.

One of my classes at the Institute of Benjamin Franklin is called, Service Learning in a Bilingual Context. In this class we are learning about the differences between the schools in Spain and the schools in the United States, as well as the different types of schools there are in Spain. Now, we are in the second part of the class and we have begun the service part in the schools. There are service projects helping teachers in the schools, but the majority of us, including myself, are in the classrooms helping the students with English.

For my project, I volunteer in an elementary school called Garcia Lorca one day each week. Generally, my classmates and I are in the same class each time in order to establish a relationship with the students and teachers, helping with their English. Each one of us has our own schedule, but for me, I help with an after school English program.

In general, I volunteer in a sixth grade class. We have been preparing for their upcoming English exams. The students have already had their oral exam, but they still have the written portion in a few weeks. The exams are from the United Kingdom and the English they are practicing is a little different than what we use in the United States. This is an interesting to see because it is similar to the difference between the Spanish from Spain and the Spanish in Mexico and South America. I am learning a lot with the opportunity to volunteer in an elementary school and I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to have chosen this course because the subject is very interesting to me.

I am very accustomed to being busy. I would much rather have a full schedule than sit around bored with nothing to do. After realizing my classes were going to take less time that I am accustomed to in the US, I knew I wanted to get involved in other activities. Luckily, our director, Cristina, gave us a variety of options for getting involved and staying busy in Alcalá. She set each of us up with a family for tutoring. I go to their house weekly to practice English conversation skills with the kids. It’s very rewarding seeing their growth with the language and getting to know them better each week by communicating in a language other than their first.

In addition to the family Cristina found for us, I am also tutoring weekly for the daughter of my host mother’s friend. She in second grade and we review what she is learning in school, as well as speak together in English. The time flies by and we have a lot of fun together.

I am also volunteering through my Service Learning class and with a program called T-oigo once a week. Between my classes, tutoring, volunteering, and traveling, I am staying very busy with my time here in Alcalá and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m Megan, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison! I have a class here in Spain at the Instituto Franklin called, "Service Learning en un contexto bilingüe." In this class we are learning about service learning and bilingual education systems. Part of this class is the service learning aspect when we go in groups to some elementary schools near Alcalá. I go with two friends in my class to a school called La Garena in the city near Alcalá with the same name. We go every Monday and Wednesday for 3 hours, and I have four different classes! I have students from third, fifth, and sixth grade!

In three of my classes I have a similar role but in the last class I have a different one. But all the classes are different because the students are different! The only thing in common is that I always speak English with the kids. In the first, second and third class I always do a presentation, of any topic I want! I have made ​​presentations about my life, sports, celebrities, and countries in the world. I always include many pictures, activities and games for the kids so that they are having fun while they learn. For the presentation about my life, I explained who is in my family, where I live with my parents, where my college is, and my favorite things: favorite food, color and animal! And after I talked about my life, I asked the students questions like how many siblings they have, and what their favorite color is. For the presentation about sports, we learned about soccer, American football, baseball, basketball, hockey, tennis, and more. At the end of the presentation, I asked questions with photos saying: “what is this?” for different pieces of equipment. For the presentation of celebrities, we learned vocabulary words, and I taught the kids about 10 celebrities who are popular in the United States. I showed them examples of songs or videos of each celebrity, and where they are from so we could learn about states or countries. For the presentation about countries we learned about 6 different countries in the world and played educational games such as "where is the Wisconsin state located in the United States?" and "Which sport is the most popular in India?"!

In my last class, I have a different role. This is the class of third-graders, and the teacher always asks me to help the kids with classroom activities. I never do my presentations. This isn’t good or bad, just different! For example in this class, I always read loudly and slowly so the kids can hear my American accent.

I do not prefer one or the other, and seriously, I don’t have a favorite class - really! I just love being with the kids, teaching, and learning as well.

It is very interesting to have a teaching role in a school. I want to be a bilingual speech therapist and therefore this time is very helpful for me because now I've seen some bilingual classes. It is the first time I've been in a class more than once. In the United States I went to a school to shadow a few speech therapists, but never more than one day at a time. Now, I think I have learned more than any class can teach. Experience is a really good teacher. This is such an incredible experience, one I will continue to learn from as time goes on.

Every Monday and Wednesday, my friends, Ian, Laura, Nancy and I have a break in between our classes. During our break, we go to a café, Granier, to drink coffee and eat toast or a chocolate napolitano.

In Alcala, and the rest of Spain, there are many bakeries, and lucky for us, the pastries and breads are very cheap! You can buy pastries, but many Spaniards buy bread to take home to eat with lunch or dinner. I like the bakeries because they are delicious and cheap. You can buy three triangles (a pastry with chocolate and sugar in the shape of a triangle) for on two euros. How awesome!? Every day at Granier, there are many people drinking coffee or groups of students that go there to buy a snack. The bakeries are site to not only buy bread or pastries, but are also places to spend time with your friends.

My friends and I like our time in our café to eat our delicious pastries and to talk about our classes, our friends, or any of our experiences in Spain. There are many bakeries on each street because bakeries are an important part to the culture in Spain, both for buying bread to take home and for social time.

This weekend the CIEE group went to Valencia. Valencia is in the east of Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and is in the group of the 4 most famous cities in Spain, including Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Valencia. The city, like almost all, is a beautiful blend of old and new. When we first arrived in Valencia we went to our hotel to eat the lunches that our families packed for us. After, we went for a walk around part of Valencia and saw the Door to the Sea, the University of Valencia, the Cathedral of Valencia, and much more. During the walk Cristina taught us about some of the typical food of Valencia including horcata de chufa (a drink consisting of a mix of water, sugar, and wet chufas which in English can be called tiger nuts), Valencian water (another drink which is a mix of champagne, orange juice, vodka, and gin), fritters (fried pumpkin dough, similar to a doughnut), and Valencian paella. We tried almost all the typical foods and enjoyed them all.

Saturday we went to a museum about a festival in Valencia called Las Fallas. Every March in Valencia there is a festival in which “falleros” create gigantic sculptures made out of wood, paper, and wax. The sculptures are normally famous people or events from the past year that the sculptor (fallero) finds satirical. The main event of Las Fallas is the 15 through the 19th of March and there are many different traditions and events that occur. On the last day of Las Fallas they set the sculptures on fire and people come from all over the world to watch. After the museum we went to see the city of art and science. It is made up of 5 main buildings called the Hemispheric, the Umbracle, the Principe Felipe Museum of Science, the Oceanographic, and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia. My friends Megan, Lindsay, Jess, and I went to the Oceanografic to see the fish, sharks, dolphins, and much more.

Sunday we went on another walk through Valencia and we saw many more places like the plaza of the bulls and the plaza of city hall. Two other important places that we saw were the market of Colon, which consists of modern style architecture, and the Silk Market where we learned about Valencia’s rich history in the silk business. Valencia is a very beautiful and dynamic city with many things to do and see. This trips we take with CIEE are always a special, fun, unique experience and something that I personally look forward to.

One of my favorite things to do here in Spain is watch the game shows, especially “Ahora Caigo” and “Atrapa un Millon.” Both shows are trivia shows, with questions about general knowledge, Spanish culture, science, mathematics, animals, etc. The structure of “Ahora Caigo” is that there is one main contestant who has to beat all of the other contestants and they go along winning money with each contestant that they beat. The ones that lose, fall! The host is really funny and my Spanish mom loves him. He always tricks the people before they fall by talking to them and distracting them. On the show “Atrapa un Millon” there are two contestants who play as a team. At the beginning of the show, they have 100,000 Euros and they answer question that have four options and they put money on the answers that they think are correct. When they get the answer wrong, they lose their money. Throughout the show they have to answer eight questions and the money they have left at the end of the eight questions is what they win. I love watching these shows because I learn a lot and it’s a good way to practice my Spanish comprehension.

If you want to go skiing in Madrid, you have three options. The ski resorts close to Madrid include Navacerrada, Valdesqui, and La Pinilla. They all have options for skiers of all levels; schools to learn to ski through runs that are difficult for experienced skiers. When you are ready to ski there are three different slopes: green, blue, and red. The green are easy, the blue are medium, and the red are the most difficult. If you do not have your own ski equipment you can rent it for the day. It costs about $25.00 for boots, skis and poles and approximately $40.00 for a lift ticket for the day.

My friend, Diana, and I went to La Panilla for the day and it was incredible! The views of the mountains and the campo below were beautiful. With the sun, it was the perfect day to enjoy skiing in the valley of riaza in Segovia, Spain. Diana has skied since she was four years old, so her level is at the red slopes. I hadn’t skied for two years, and only a few times before that. I tried a red run with her and it was a challenge to say the least. The blue runs are better for skiers at my level.

Skiing in Spain seems much better than in Wisconsin because there are mountains instead of hills!

One day every week, I meet with two Spanish children to help them with their English. The children are 9 and 11 years old and they both study English in their schools. For two hours every Wednesday, I help the little boy, Oscar, with his English homework and then talk with him and his sister, Irene about their days, their interests, and more.

My director, Cristina Blanco put me in contact with the mother of this family. Many other people in my program always help tutor local kids with their English. This is a great opportunity to talk with locals and help to improve my Spanish. Oscar and Irene don’t always know the words in English or how to say a Spanish word in English, so I have to explain the significance in Spanish to them. Through my tutoring, I am constantly translating Spanish to English or English to Spanish. My job is harder than I thought it would be, but I love it.

With my kids, we talk about their favorite television programs, their favorite foods (Irene loves meatballs), their activities (both kids play many sports), and their lives in general. In order to improve their English, many Spanish kids spend a few months in Ireland. Oscar has already lived in Ireland for a little while, but Irene is still too young to go.

The family pays me 20€ for two ours of conversation but I like my time with my kids for more than just the money!